So here we are again, a fourth year of VEGAS100 has been and gone, a concept which just goes from strength to strength each year. On this occasion over 250 Redtooth Poker members and guests joined us in Las Vegas to experience the greatest prize in pub poker, the Redtooth Poker VEGAS100 National Final.

What is VEGAS100?

In 2012, Redtooth Poker revolutionised pub poker in the UK by introducing VEGAS100, a concept taking the UK’s top 100 poker players, which are found via regional, national and online qualifiers, to the poker capital of the world, Las Vegas, to join the VEGAS100 experience and compete for the title of UK Pub Poker Champion. 100 players would travel across the pond but only 1 would return as the champion. Fife’s Gordon Cuthill emerged victorious last year to become our first ever Scottish champion but would he hold onto his crown or would a new star emerge from the desert of Las Vegas?

The cards were in the air on time at around 12:00 noon with a 12 hour poker marathon ahead of our 100 winners. The fantastic structure we use for VEGAS100 ensures all of our players get a lot of play in the early stages and as expected it took a while for us to lose our first player. Last year it took 90 minutes before we saw our first elimination, this year it took 45 minutes as Danny Albanese‘s A-K was unfortunate to run into A-A to eliminate him from the tournament.

The chip lead exchanged hands throughout the tournament as it went from James Taylor to Jose Allessendro (below right) to Adam Balazs to Paul Harrison (below left) as every player who was eliminated from the tournament received a big round of applause to show respect for what each player has achieved. The final 20 players were found in the early evening and all 20 received an introduction.

Neil’s elimination in 3rd place brought us to our heads-up battle between the big stack Jack Morton and Michael Knight. After around a 50 minute heads-up battle with the chips moving from one player to the other the final hand was upon us. With Jack at risk he tabled A-8 to Michael’s 9-9 and with a board favourable to Michael, Jack was eliminated in 2nd place and with it a new UK Pub Poker Champion was found in Droitwich’s Michael Knight!!